He walked past the campus fountain, watching a freshman girl struggle with a mountain of shopping bags from the high-end mall downtown. She looked exhausted, her face tight with the stress of maintaining an image that cost more than her meal plan. Marcus saw himself in her—the "sophisticated" mask, the desperate need to belong to a world that only valued what you could buy.
The air in the lecture hall felt like a velvet noose. Marcus adjusted his tie for the tenth time, his reflection in the darkened window showing a man who looked like a success but felt like a fraud. He was twenty-two, three months from a marketing degree he didn’t want, and three thousand dollars deep in credit card debt for a watch that didn't even keep time correctly. Kanye West - All Falls Down ft. Syleena Johnson
He stepped out onto the quad, the autumn wind biting through his designer jacket—the one he’d bought to impress a girl who had already moved on to a guy with a real career. He walked past the campus fountain, watching a
"It all falls down," he whispered, the lyrics of the song he’d been looping all morning echoing in his head. The air in the lecture hall felt like a velvet noose
Suddenly, his phone buzzed. A notification from his bank: Account Overdrawn.